Vanilla cupcakes

Alright so Easter is this Sunday and as I said before my sister is getting to make the dessert for our family dinner but luckily for me I have my husbands side too, so I'm making desserts for that dinner. I have made a cheesecake that I'm going to post later but since not all of them like cheesecake I decided to make cupcakes as well. I have a chocolate cupcake recipe that I usually use that is pretty good but I don't have a vanilla one that I really like so I began searching the Internet for the prefect one. There was nothing that really jumped out at me so I did a quick glance of a couple and decided to make up my own.

I was very nervous starting this little journey because I know lots of times cupcakes or cakes can turn out pretty dense and I hate that. They always taste great right out of the oven but after a little while they are thick and chewy, exactly what I am trying to avoid. So after doing some research I realized that there are some tricks that you can do to make them more moist. One is to use 3 egg yolks instead of 2 whole eggs, but I don't have time to make macarons with those egg whites and I refuse to throw them out so that little hack is out. Then I read that some people use buttermilk instead of regular milk, which is totally do-able except that it's good Friday and I have no buttermilk and I never really trust that just add vinegar to regular milk and it turns to buttermilk, so again that hack is out. But then I read that some people add sour cream, now on the recipes I saw they used sour cream instead of milk and it was about 1/2 a cup or so but when I went into my fridge I realized that I only had about two tablespoons of sour cream, so that's all these cupcakes were going to get. So here's what I did.

First I put the flour, baking soda and baking powder in a medium bowl.

I then have them a quick mix and set the bowl aside.

Next I cracked two eggs into the bowl of my stand mixer.

I added in the sugar.

Then I beat the two together until they reached a soft yellow colour.

I then added in the chunks of softened butter.

I beat that for awhile.

Then I added in the vanilla. And gave it another mix.

I then added the flour mixture to the bowl and mixed it until just combined.

At this point the batter was very sticky and hard to deal with.

I then added in the milk.

Stirred the whole thing until combined. Now I know you can see chunks of butter still in there, that's okay, the butter melts and makes them even more moist! 

I then added my two tablespoons of sour cream and mixed it in.

I then took my lined muffin tins and grabbed my ice cream scoop and started filling. Using an ice cream scoop is a little trick I've learned, it makes it so you don't have to bang the spoon on the side or anything because you and clear it out with the handle and it also helps to make sure that your cupcakes are even. 

So I scooped all my batter and filled them about 3/4 of the way. Then I popped them in the oven for about 8-10 minutes, if you think your oven is going to heat faster then that then keep an eye on them. The longer the cupcakes cook the more moisture that they loose so if you want really soft fluffy cupcakes pay attention to how long you cook them for.

Once they were baked I took them out and let them cool in the pan for a minute or so and then took them out and placed them on a wire rack to finish cooling. I then moved on the making the buttercream icing for the top of these little beauties. 

I first put the chunks of softened butter in the bowl of my stand mixer.

Then I added the cut up shortening.

Add in the vanilla, for this icing I used clear vanilla extract because I wanted the icing to be as white as possible. If you don't have clear it's not a big deal because of the shortening the icing ends up being pretty white no matter what but I just wanted to be sure. 

Next cream everything together, start the mixer on low speed or else the butter and shortening will be flying all over your kitchen, and then increase the speed as everything begins coming together. Once it is creamed scrape down the sides. 

Then add a bit of the icing sugar, mix and add more and continue this until you have used all the icing sugar. Be sure to scrape down the sides as you go so that everything gets combined. Next add the milk to get the right consistency. 

And there is your perfect buttercream icing! Now since these were Easter cupcakes I had to add a little extra, so I got some sprinkles and some marshmallows and had some fun! 

I first poured the sprinkles into little cups big enough that I could dunk the marshmallows in. 

Then I cuz the marshmallows in half diagonally and dipped each side into the sprinkles to make the ear effect. After o had finished the "ears" I put my icing in a pastry bag and decorated the cupcakes one at a time so that the icing wouldn't harden in between and not hold the marshmallows. I also added an m&m on the back to act as a little tail! 

And there is the finished product. These cupcakes turned out to be exactly what o wanted, they aren't too sweet, they are fluffy and moist and the buttercream icing makes them have that little extra sugar that you're missing from the cupcake itself. And they are just so darn cute.

Recipe

Cupcakes

Ingredients

1 1/4 cup flour 

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

2 large eggs

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup softened salted butter 

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup whole milk

2 tbsp sour cream

Directions

Preheat oven to 350F. In a medium bowl whisk together flour, baking soda and baking power and set aside. In the bowl of your stand mixer crack the two eggs and add the sugar, beat on low until it turns a soft yellow colour. Add in the cut up butter and beat again until combined. Next add the vanilla and beat.  Then add in he flour mixture and mix until just combined. Add in the milk and stir until the batter becomes smooth and is jo liger sticky. Then add in the sour cream and mix. Empty batter into a prepared muffin tin using a ice cream scoop. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 1 minute and then remove and place on a wire rack for the remainder of cooling. Ice when completely cooled. 

Buttercream icing

Ingredients 

1/2 bag icing sugar

1/4 cup butter 

3/4 cup vegetable shortening 

1 tsp vanilla

1/8-1/2 cup of whole milk

Directions 

Cream butter, shortening and vanilla together in the bowl of a stand mixer with  the flat beater attachment on. Once completely mixed begin adding the icing sugar slowly. Continue to mix on low speed until completely combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and continue to mix. Add the milk until you reach your desired consistency.